THE BUILDERS : A POEM BY H.W. LONGFELLOW
‘THE BUILDERS’ is one of the best-loved poems of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(27.2.1807 – 24.3.1882). By the builders,
he means nation-builders and includes in his list everybody, without any condition.
In another poem with a similar theme , he says it is not wealth that makes a
nation great and strong but those loyal people who stand firm and suffer long for
her truth and honour.
The poem which means that everybody, whatever be his or her assets has some
contribution to make to the task of nation-building reads as follows:
THE BUILDERS
All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place its best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.
In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the hose, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.
Rise our lives are incomplete,
Standing in these walls of Tie,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.
Build today, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall tomorrow find its place.
Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky,
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5th April 2023
G.R.Kanwal
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